World Grand Prix Championship Season 14: Roleplay Thread

[Vulkanas]

As the qualifying session ended, Gunnar pulled his car into the pits and parked it. He still hadn't made the second round this year, but it was still early in the season. He took his time to take off his helmet, gloves, unplug the radio and water, and remove the steering wheel. He then got out and walked over to the weighing scales to get weighed and receive his timesheet.

1:22.653

One tenth away from the top ten. Even worse, half a tenth behind his teammate. He let out a large sigh. He wouldn't be getting over this one easily.

[Ethane]

''What's up with this s***?'' I said to my engineer. ''I'm not normally this low, what the f*** is going on?!''

''I don't actually know. We're investigating the issue, and I think it may have something to do with the issues R.L Cruisin has had outside of practice.'' my engineer replied, trying to calm me down.

''What the actual f***. I can't deal this. What's the point in even driving?!'' I screamed out, fury filling me. I sat down, infuriated, trying to control my anger.

''We're on it Ethan. We'll make sure to try to find the problem before the race.''

''I DON'T WANT THE F***ING PROBLEM FIXED BEFORE THE RACE, I WANT IT FIXED BEFORE THIS F***ING WEEKEND. THIS CAR ISN'T SUPPOSED TO DO THIS S***. WHAT IS ACTUAL GOING ON?! R.L CRUISIN AND ME ARE SUFFERING BECAUSE OF THIS BAD CAR!''

''Ethan. While the car may be at fault slightly, you can't pin it all down to it. This maybe is just not your race.''

''I DON'T WANT TO KNOW. Sorry. I'll... take a breather...''

''You have to admit though'' the engineer said to the computer analyst, ''that lap time from him was a bit low. Can you check over again? Are you sure there was absolutely no issue with the car whatsoever?''

''No matter how hard it may be to believe it, there was no issue from the car's end coming up on the monitor. I think he just had a bad session. He doesn't look very happy, it may be he just isn't in the best mindset at the moment for racing. The issue is, he needs to be, and if he is in the wrong mindset, he needs to get back into it.''

''It still could be the car though right? It just may not have come up on the monitor?''

''Yeah, right. Very low probability, but possible. Likely would be heading towards an engine failure if that is the case, or a gearbox failure.''

''Oh. Um. Yeah, the issue isn't the car then...''

[Ceni]

Overall, it was not a bad qualification attempt for the two Cenian racers, or Will Madison for that matter. Will Madison had done well in the first round of qualifying, coming in first place overall, while Val came in fifth and Convarion in seventh to qualify for the next round of qualification for the real race on Sunday. In the second round, Spupuo had managed not to break down while doing well on the straightaways, while Toralmintii placed third, ready to win the race for his team, as always. The Fornax racers, though, had done a little bit worse than on their first shot at qualifying, Will Madison falling to fifth and Jac-Irlo Val to seventh, while Vic Convarion fell to dead last. Still, it was an excellent position for the upcoming race, where all three of the racers had the chance to succeed.

The circuit had several great spots for Will and Jac-Irlo to overtake, and several great spots for Vic to put his technical skills to good use. The trio all had good feelings about their upcoming races. Of course, they would have to be wary of mistakes, as three out of the last four starts had been Did Not Finish races for Fornax. Something was wrong with the cars on both occasions, and Owen was telling his engineers to work around the clock to fix the problems. He didn't want his team to fail yet again when they had a great chance to do well here in Eastfield Lodge. While Vic might be doing the job Fornax was supposed to do so far, Owen still didn't want his "baby", Fornax, to die on him. He had invested a lot, both monetarily and mentally, into Fornax. He didn't want to lose it all, with several more circuits still left to go.

Owen called up Jac-Irlo on the phone after the qualification test. "Hey, can you call back a bit later?" he asked. "Vic and I are eating right now. Chicken tikka masala. Very spicy, but very flavorful. Just the way I like it. Vic is having tandoori chicken." "OK, I will call back later, I just wanted to check in quickly on you guys." "We're doing well, both of us qualified to the second round. Will did too, getting first place on the way as well. And good on the social front as well - no mobs of ladies walking right up to us, asking for our autographs or to take selfies with us." Jac-Irlo sometimes liked to flaunt his attractiveness. Vic really didn't care about his features. "Great for them! Let's just hope that he gets first place again, this time on the real race track. We could use 25 points." "Everybody could." "Alright, thanks for the update. Now I'll let you finish your meals." The two finished their excellent drinks, including the sweet mango lassi, and then headed to the hotel to pick up Will.

[Hodori Motorsports]

Aels had been a frustrating weekend. Souzare normally liked the rain; her driving style being more suited to wet conditions certainly helped. In the domestic Hodoran open-wheel championship, Souzare had consistently done better than Ashburton in equal machinery in the wet. In the rain-soaked Grand Prix of Aels, Ashburton was chasing down third when laps ran out while Souzare was doing everything she could to improve on her starting position, finishing the race twelfth and a lap off pace.

Souzare sighed and rolled over in bed, grabbing her phone from the nightstand.

---

---

---

Seozamo couldn’t sleep. Not until the replacement parts were installed in the cars. The spare energy recovery systems were still in transit, being flown in from Infini’s manufacturing plant outside Kizagama. During Friday’s practice, Nadakei’s ERS had given up at the end of his longer run, with Ashburton reporting harvesting and deployment issues after scoring her best lap.

Between the close of practice and the team’s post-session debrief, an inventory check revealed they didn’t bring enough spare ERS parts for both, or even a total system replacement for one. Accounting for delays in shipping and customs, the parts would arrive well after the close of qualifying at the earliest, local Sunday morning at the latest. So, with no ERS, Seozamo had instructed her drivers to do the best they could in qualifying.

Just over two and a half seconds off pole was what they could manage without the benefit of ERS. Nadakei had done better, but both would still be starting from the back row. Plus whatever penalties they’d carry from a full ERS replacement, they would have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow afternoon. Dekijika Racing, in its various incarnations through the years, had bounced back from worse.

[WGPC]

CUT OFF for the third race of the season!

[WGPC]

Race Three
Grand Prix of Eastfield Lodge

*Laps: 69
*Conditions: Dry

Pos # Driver               Team			Race Time	Gap
 1  8 Igne Spupuo                	1:38:34.786	+0:00.000
 2 18 Louis Krindle              	1:39:05.409	+0:30.623
 3 77 iBen Toralmintii           	1:39:18.089	+0:12.680
 4 14 Oliver Bliss               	1:39:42.681	+0:24.592
 5 89 Will Madison               	1:39:43.682	+0:01.001
 6 24 Victoria Gardner           	1:39:51.015	+0:07.332
 7 51 R.L. Crusin                	1:39:51.844	+0:00.829
 8 46 Reni Sanderson             	1:39:57.639	+0:05.795
 9 56 Terho Talvela              	-1		+0:03.017
10  7 Ethan Ellis                	-1		+0:11.639
11 55 Asao Nadakei               	-1		+0:09.963
12 10 Lauren Ashburton           	-1		+0:10.686
13 52 Sayono Souzare             	-1		+0:08.820
14 29 Esteban Guilhermez         	-1		+0:01.584
15 23 Moisés Delgado             	-1		+0:09.449
16 13 Gunnar Lindstrom           	-1		+0:23.111
17  3 Mateo Oket                 	-1		+0:08.284
18  6 Alexander Lund             	-1		+0:00.419
19 42 Alex Dimitrianov           	-2		+0:53.629
20 17 Oliver Bachmann            	-2		+0:33.626
21 35 Jac-Irlo Val               	Ret. Lap 67

DNF  1 Alexandra Mayari           	Ret. Lap 53
DNF 12 Vic Convarion              	Ret. Lap 2	
DNF 21 Alexander Kohlon           	Ret. Lap 2

Drivers' Standings

Pos	#	Name			Team				Pts
1	77	iBen Toralmintii	VTM				39
2	8	Igne Spupuo		Telaris Racing			35
3	18	Louis Krindle		MSA-SinVal			28
4	56	Terho Talvela		VTM				27
5	6	Alexander Lund		McPahan Racing			21
6	24	Victoria Gardner	SFeG				20
7	12	Vic Convarion		Telaris Racing			18
8	7	Ethan Ellis		Carvenlo-Franklin Racing	17
9	55	Asao Nadakei		ENSADRINK GP			14
10	89	Will Madison		Fornax Racing			12
11	10	Lauren Ashburton	ENSADRINK GP			10
11	14	Oliver Bliss		MSA-SinVal			10
13	1	Alexandra Mayari	SFeG				6
14	46	Reni Sanderson		McPahan Racing			5
15	51	R.L. Crusin		Carvenlo-Franklin Racing	4
16	17	Oliver Bachmann		MRT				3
17	42	Alex Dimitrianov	MRT				2
18	3	Mateo Oket		Archer Motorsports		1
18	23	Moisés Delgado		Cygnus ATR			1
20	52	Sayono Souzare		Archer Motorsports		0
20	29	Esteban Guilhermez	Cygnus ATR			0
20	35	Jac-Irlo Val		Fornax Racing			0
20	20	Marcus Melton		WGPC Motorworks			0
20	21	Alexander Kohlon	WGPC Motorworks			0
20	13	Gunnar Lindstrom	WGPC Motorworks			0

Constructor's Standings

VTM				66
Telaris Racing			53
MSA-Sinval			38
McPahan Racing			26
SFeG				26
ENSADRINK GP			24
Carvenlo-Franklin Racing	21
Fornax Racing			12
MRT				5
Archer Motorsports		1
Cygnus ATR			1
WGPC Motorsports		0

[Drawkland]

The racers were at the lines. The sun was shining. The crowd was cheering. The flag dropped and Will hit the metal and revved up, trying to pass up Reni Sanderson right out of the gate. His initial plan he cooked up the day before had worked - he managed to wedge in front of Sanderson and get into turn 1 right alongside iBen Toralmintii. Unfortunately, Toralmintii really gunned it up the first uphill, and left Will down behind him. Luckily, he still managed to stay ahead of Sanderson enough to get well-situated.

Will was stuck behind Toralmintii for pretty much the entire race, unfortunately. A few breaks happened for Jac-Irlo though, as Alex Lund of McPahan and Alex Mayari of SFeG ended up having some sort of collision of sorts in lap 53, ending Mayari's race and dropping Lund back to a 2 lap deficit by the end of the race. Now only Sanderson stood between Jac and Will, and by Lap 56, Jac got huge momentum going down turn 10, and passed up not only Sanderson, but even passed Will himself. Will joked about not being too happy about Jac taking his spot, but inwardly he didn't mind.
A 4th and 5th finish for Fornax is more imporant than an extra 2 points for me, Will thought to himself.

By lap 60, Oliver Bliss of MSA was hot on the Fornax tail, and Will had to put in some maneuvers to keep Bliss from breaking up or through their 2-man chain. Jac wasn't as concerned about this obviously, as he was trying his best to get the better of Toralmintii, who was riding just in front of them. But in lap 67, a mere 2 laps from the finish, Jac went hard between turns 13 and 14 to get in front of Toralmintii. To Fornax's collective shock, Jac accidentally nudged Toralmintii's back tires with his, and suddenly his car spun out of control, slamming into the wall next to turn 15. He swerved in front of Will, forcing him to brake and turn out of the way. Unfortunately in the mess, Toralmintii was unaffected and went right into the straightaway, making an impossible gap. As if matters could get worse, Bliss, who was following close behind, throttled past Will as the Drawkian braked, keeping Will in 5th place. Will snapped out of his daze and chased after Bliss, hoping Jac was okay but knowing he couldn't afford to lose any more ground.

He tried his best to overtake Bliss, but when he got close on a turn, he got called out on the radio, "Don't risk it, Madison! We can't afford to have two crashes in a race again, especially not this late in the race and this high in the order."
With a sigh, Will agreed, and tailed Bliss as effectively as he could manage, inwardly thankful that Victoria Gardner of SFeG was considerably far behind. A lap later, Will crossed the finish line with bitterness in his mouth, a second behind Bliss, and firmly in 5th place. While 8 points is nothing to sniff at, it still is only half of what Fornax expected 10 minutes earlier.

---

"I guess you could say I'm a little bit salty!" Will complained after the race, walking back to the hotel with Jac-Irlo and his coach Jerry Mannar.
"No times for puns like that kid. I don't need any more cringes today after watching Jac-Irlo spin out of control earlier," Mannar responded.
Will chuffed, hoping Jac wouldn't be offended. Drawkians are generally considered a bit unfiltered in speech, especially to those not used to the banter and slight brutal honesty Drawkians throw around on the daily.
"While I'm not the one to blame equipment, I do admit that something is wrong with your car, Jac. There's no way you, a competent racer, should not finish 3 races in a row. It's just plain unlikely. There's gotta be some sort of big issue that the engineers haven't seen yet," Will posited after a moment.
"It's weird that they haven't found anything. God knows they've been putting in overtime lately," Mannar pointed out, with a slight frown.
"True that," Will chuckled.
"I'd go as far to say it could be foul play," Mannar continued, "I wouldn't be shocked, a few of those fellas out there seem shifty to me. Hell, that horse jockey guy won the damn thing today. He hasn't even been in an F1 car until a month ago, and now he's winning races and shoving spots right. You can't tell me that's natural," he said. Will couldn't tell if he was joking but he could admit he had a point.
"I really hope that isn't the case. Who would specifically target Jac's car anyway?" said Will, turning to look at Jac-Irlo, "Does anybody in the WGPC hate you enough to bug your car with something?" he asked.
"Ah, I wouldn't even say it's a WGPC-related person," Mannar cut in, "May be someone jealous of Jac's inclusion in the WGPC, jealous that he gets international fame and glory while he or she is stuck in whatever Cenian league. I think that's most likely."
"Whatever the case, I hope it's just an issue with the car's construction. These crashes and failures might end up killing you, Jac, I would really hate to see that happen," Will said. By then they were on their floor of the hotel, and Will said goodbye to both of the men as he went to his room to relax after a tough day.

69 laps and not even a place change, he thought to himself, But better than Aels. And technically better than Hodori too. Our luck is rising, maybe next week in Liventia will be different.

[Aboveland]

Terho felt his soft compounds go over the ridges of the checkered finish line strip as he finished ninth in Eastfield Lodge. He did a small fist pump beside him. He'd only scored two points and had dropped to fourth in the drivers' standings, but he was aware of that. He was happy. Climbing to a points scoring position from 17th place had already been a tough task, but he'd fulfilled his goal of doing just that. A few points after a disastrous run earlier in Aels came as a sigh of relief to the Abovian, even though it wasn't his preferred result. Also, why be unhappy? Igne Spupo had gotten his first GP win, and V+T was still first in the manufacturers' championship. Terho himself was still a worthy competitor for the title.

He rolled into the paddock wearing a pleased grin, and congratulated iBen, first and foremost. Then, he rushed to see Igne Spupo and congratulate the jockey for his first ever win. It had been special to him; Terho decided to make it special for others too. Back in the V+T paddock he weighed himself and chucked the podium cap to his mentor. Oh how he enjoyed iBen's easy-going, patient personality. He wanted to be like him someday: calm, confident and consistent.

At the podium ceremony, Edvin creeped up behind Terho and whispered "well done" into his ear.
"Thanks Edvin," answered Terho.
"My pleasure. 17th to 9th is quite the jump, let me tell you."
"Mhm. Luckily R.L. stuck to the strategy we'd planned."
"So listen," Edvin said. "VTM has responded to your practice request. They said you could go anytime. I'd say we go to Eeilandii this time round, so you can get a few more hours of practice with the car before the next GP. If you do, it'll be a piece of cake, seriously; it's your kind of track."
"Yeah, I saw. Lots of fast, flowing turns or wide long hairpins. There are a few tight sections near the end but I'm more comfortable with them after today. Way more!"
"Cool... So what do you say? Yay or nay?"
"Sure, let's do it. We leave tonight!"

Terho and Edvin go to Turori to practice with the car in Eeilandii, to get some more experience before the next GP, which will be held on an easy track for him.

[Aboveland]

Take it easy, like a Sunday drive.

Terho exited the deserted pit lane in Eeilandii in Turori ready to set a few laps around the circuit, to get some extra experience in Chassis Y before the next race.

His first lap was rather calm and easy, and therefore rather slow, lingering in the high end of 1:23 marks, almost 1:23:9xx. Terho wasn't pleased, and began his push.

The next five laps were progressively faster, and always below the 1:23:5xx marks. These consistently rather quick times made Terho increasingly confident, but when he reached the 1:23:007 mark, his eyes lit up. What if he pushed even harder to beat the Eeilandii qualifying times? He didn't quite remember them exactly, but he knew they were in the upper 1:22's. With two laps to go, he began his final push.

Next lap clocked in at 1:22:95. It felt good, but not good enough.

On his final lap, he set a time of 1:22:846. "Oh yes!" Terho exclaimed. Only a matter of milliseconds slower than the lap record.

Rolling into the paddock, Edvin approached the bug-dotted GP car and clapped for his mate. He'd beaten both fastest times of the pre-season qualifying event on the same track, and beaten the fastest of the two by almost a whole tenth of a second. Grinning from ear to ear and happy with his lessons learned, the pair finished administrative business on site and headed to get freshened up before the flight back to Aboveland, purely to stock up on clothes and necessities before their trip to the venue of the next GP, a three flight trip.

[Mattijana]

"Which idiot designed this circuit?" Said Alex Dimitrianov.

"I don't know, but they clearly have no taste." Replied the engineer.

The two MRT's had struggled throughout the weekend and were now blaming it on the 'Mickey Mouse' nature of the Mount Salt Raceway and its numerous tight, slow corners. Oliver Bachmann had moaned the previous night, after a particularly dissapointing qualifying performance, that "even the straight bits aren't straight."

In truth, the team had expected this having set up a car for the more common sweeping turns on the Grand Prix calender and were not expecting a good result. Even so, the only positive was that both cars had acheived another double finish and that the two car's reliability was amongst the best on the whole grid.

Both cars had had a fairly quiet time during the race, poodling around at the back and using the few retirements to move up the order. To add insult to injury, both cars seemed to be plagued with a hydraulics problem that severly limited the power that the two cars could channel to their wheels. In the end, it was a minor miracle that the two cars were only lapped twice.

Johann Struna was still optimistic and decided they should use the test in Eelandii to try and increase their straight line and low speed pace before the races in Liventia and the team's home Grand Prix in Mattijana where raw speed would be a helpful factor. That involved a new aero setup and changes in the braking system to be sharper when turning in to low-speed corners.

[Taeshan]

"Impressive run out there Oliver. Top 5, 14 seconds of the podium, but you were definitely the best of the also rans. What is it like to finally get some points."

"It is a great feeling. We knew we had the speed from the beginning of the weekend. We were doing well, the track really fits well with how i run, and how the team runs. It helps that this is also MSA-Sinval's hometrack, Louis gave me a lot of tips. He knew the track well, it helped me do well. We finished 2nd a 4th. While yeah we would have liked to win, and maybe finish 1-2, this is still great for our team. It gets us a lot of points, gets me on the board and hopefully this can launch us to even bigger things this season."

"You and the team are almost 30 points back, how do you guys see your season going from here on out?"

"I think we have a chance on both fronts. We are third as a team which just means we need to get some more speed and we can run after the team points. That will probably be the easier of the two. Louis is racing well, and if i can catch up to him we can put pressure on the VTM and Telaris. As for the driver standings a win here or there and this is a whole new ballgame. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but toot. I can win a race, if me an my team continue to gel we can do it. It is more a matter of time than a matter of if."

Oliver left the post race interview with a smile on his face. It was a good run, better than he thought he was going to do. The fact however was he was still well of the leaders and would need to continue to find more speed if he had hopes of winning. He believed he could do it, he had the backing of his team and his crew, and if they could pull this off it would be a momentous occasion. The first Taeshani driver to get points in over a decade, and the best finish ever for a Taeshani driver. The only other points was a bottom top 10 finish and Oliver now could rely on being the best Taeshani driver ever in the WGPC.

[Liventia]

Double points finish gives C–F hope heading into home race
TALBOTT— Mark Marsh is a worried man.

Or he was, until last weekend in Eastfield Lodge when the unreliable Carvenlo–Franklin car finally performed well enough in race conditions to allow both RL Cruisin and Ethan Ellis to finish in the points.

Cruisin had dominated in the practice sessions only to crash out in the first two races of the season at Hodori and Aels, while unfancied newcomer Ellis has generally outshone his more experienced teammate.

With the legendary Vilitan finally notching up points on the board thanks to a seventh-place finish at Mount Salt, the C–F boss was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Ahead of this weekend's home race for C–F at the Talbott Autodrome, Marsh and team principal Fredrik Helmarsson have doubled their efforts to ensure a good result for the local fans.

"We're acutely aware that there aren't any Liventian drivers taking part in the world championship this year," Marsh says. "We're the only ones flying the Liventian flag. But we feel very confident that we've ironed out those early-season reliability issues and there's no reason we shouldn't do well here."

'Here' is the Talbott Autodrome, home circuit to the smaller half of C–F: Franklin Racing, based just 1.4 miles away from the racetrack. Franklin are providing the gearboxes for the C–F cars this year, and Marsh knows that's an advantage.

"Of course we at Carvenlo have prior knowledge of racing around here nationally and internationally, and we had our own data. But the boys at Franklin, they're here every day. They know the conditions inside-out and how to set the most efficient gear ratios for the transmissions."

It's a return to the World Championship calendar for Talbott after a season away at Gold Park in Neverend. The last time the global event was here, two seasons ago, Alexander Lund scored a shock maiden victory for young upstart team McPahan Racing – then in the midst of their own reliability issues. Does Marsh draw anything from that?

"We know this track is high on technical difficulty, you can't be too aggressive around here. And that probably works in favour of teams like us, and like McPahan in those days, where you're not pushing the car to breaking point. Granted it was far easier to break a McPahan then than it is to break a Carvenlo car now!"

Carvenlo–Franklin are already 45 points off the pace in the constructors' championship, and Marsh knows the team can't afford to drop too many more points.

"It's a long way back if we're not careful, but we've got two really good drivers – Ethan has already outdone all expectations – and we're expecting a solid result this weekend. Two cars on the podium and who knows where we'll be at the end of the season?"

[Deiorus]

It was a cold and rainy day in Deios with almost all of the royal family in the palace to watch their new sporting prospect, Igne Spupuo. The royalty and other high status members were huddled in a makeshift media centre that clashed heavily with the priceless works of art in the state room. Due to the heavy rain outside a power outage had occurred and a power generator was set with it's exhaust out of the window to power to the palace.

The television was on full volume due the poor noise isolation and the dome structure of the palace “AND WITH THAT SPUPUO GETS HIS FIRST WIN IN WGPC, MUST BE AN AMAZING MOMENT FOR HIM TODAY TO GET ON THE PODIUM WITH SUCH A LARGE GAP”

As the announcers voice was booming through the expensive media set up, Prince Effonk made a comment in a bored tone “So, why didn't we go watch him again? He gave us a reason to get of this dreary place”, Len responded swiftly “Cracks under pressure, he almost mangled 2 other drivers the last time we tried to watch him, can't have him represent Deiorus constantly crashing”, Effonk continued his bored drivel “But we spend all that money on him, shouldn't we have the right to watch him perform live”, Len was getting angry with Effonk's remarks “We don't watch him live BECAUSE WE SPEND SO MUCH MONEY ON HIM, as I said, can't have him crash every time he catches a glimpse of us”, Len leaned over to an advisor and whispered into his ear “Get some press releases out about the news that we are going to name the un-named airport after him, he probably expected it but should be a good reward for the first win.”, Effonk got up and walked out of the room as he made another comment “I appreciate the fact that you at least made the place smell and sound like a race track with the generator going on”

Prince Yotcosh also got ready to storm out of the room as he out-claimed “Well, I don't agree with Effonk, I'm glad at least we waste our money on good athletes instead of modernising our agricultural sector or building coal plants that can stand a bit of drizzle”, Len yelled while losing his temper “THE REASON WE FUND SPORTS BECAUSE IT'LL GET US MORE FORGEIN AID WORKERS VOLUNTEERING HERE, WE NEED OUR NAME HEARD!” as Yotcosh got out of the room.

[Ethane]

''Well done Ethan, well done! That's your best drive of the season so far.''

That is arguable, naturally. It wasn't the highest points tally that he has ever achieved in the race. He certainly got let down by his qualifying around the circuit. However, his race was beautiful, recovering from his 19th position on the starting grid to pick up a point for his team, finishing in 10th. Now, this might seem disappointing to some, but considering how Ellis was struggling with this track earlier in the weekend, quite badly, the fact that he has managed to recover from so low down to get points is a miracle.

It was a remarkable drive from the Ethanian driver, who has been outperforming his teammate, and all his expectations this season. With his position as a unpaid driver, bringing the money into the team rather than being the one that performs, Ethan was never expected to be getting up there in the grid finishes, and sometimes challenging for a podium finish. Finishing 5th in 2 concurrent races, he has certainly not let the side down, and is not appearing to break off his form in upcoming races. Stumbling a bit going into the Eastfield Lodge Grand Prix, Ethan was able to recover to post a 10th place finish, and although worse than his teammate, was still good in context of his starting position. His performance in other races also puts him in a better place in comparison to Cruisin, who had a horrific start to the season, and has been unable to find any form until as of late.

With the Liventian Grand Prix coming up, Carvenlo-Franklin racing will be hoping for their racers to put in a good performance, to impress the home crowd, and the racers are set to practice well, in the hope of putting in good times. It is hoped that with the team, and the drivers so far back in the championship rankings at this stage, this race will provide a wake up call, and be the turn around point, from which the team and the drivers can go on to do well in the championship rankings. With the support of the Liventians behind them, the racers are hoping for the best.

[WGPC]

Grand Prix of Liventia

Friday Practice

* Drivers had 90 minutes to record up to 30 laps of the track.
* Conditions: Dry

Pos	Car	Name			Team	
1	51	R.L. Crusin		    	1:40.294
2	7	Ethan Ellis		    	1:40.336
3	77	iBen Toralmintii	    	1:40.420
4	8	Igne Spupuo		    	1:40.539
5	89	Will Madison		    	1:40.541
6	3	Mateo Oket		    	1:40.681
7	14	Oliver Bliss		    	1:40.745
8	56	Terho Talvela		    	1:40.751
9	6	Alexander Lund		    	1:40.759
10	35	Jac-Irlo Val		    	1:40.828
11	46	Reni Sanderson		    	1:40.862
12	52	Sayono Souzare		    	1:40.899
13	18	Louis Krindle		    	1:40.912
14	55	Asao Nadakei		    	1:40.924
15	12	Vic Convarion		    	1:40.944
16	42	Alex Dimitrianov	    	1:41.034
17	21	Alexander Kohlon	    	1:41.044
18	13	Gunnar Lindstrom	    	1:41.184
19	17	Oliver Bachmann		    	1:41.200
20	29	Esteban Guilhermez	    	1:41.228
21	23	Moisés Delgado		    	1:41.313
22	20	Marcus Melton		    	1:41.497
23	10	Lauren Ashburton	    	1:41.613
24	1	Alexandra Mayari	    	1:42.140
25	24	Victoria Gardner	    	1:42.467

[Aboveland]

Chassis Y's super soft compounds wrinkled the tarp laid down on the floor of the V+T paddock. iBen had already arrived.

Terho undid his seatbelt and unbuckled his helmet, laying it in the seat. Edvin approached him:

"So how'd it go out there?"
"Okay," Terho replied. "I lost some time on turns 7, 14 and 16, but everywhere else I felt buttery smooth. Shame I'm eighth."
"Why are you eighth then?"
"No clue. I felt at ease with the car and my time lost on the hairpins didn't seem that bad, but well..."
Edvin could see Terho was feeling a bit down, so he tried to cheer him up.
"Hey, don't worry about this. You did well, just a few seconds behind the winner. Plus, you're only a rookie, and with this practice session you got to grips with the track. You'll be faster in qualifying, I'm sure."
"I guess you're right. Thanks."
Head up high, Terho proceeded to chat with his fellow drivers, including his mentor, and took a hot, exhilarating, relaxing shower in the changing rooms to renew himself. After that, he rejoined the drivers and began plans to organize a meeting or a get-together sometime.

[Mattijana]

"This is better!" Exclaimed a much happier Alex Dimitrianov. The circuit in Liventia suited the whole MRT team much more than the one in Mount Salt had. There were 2 sections of fast corners which the car could get its revamped aero package into and there was a continuous flow to the track wihich the track in Eastfield Lodge just didn't have.

Both drivers had dedicated the majority of their practice session to longer runs to try and improve a race pace that had been well down on what they had acheived in qualifying and practice. That had left them little time for a qualifying simulation, but even down on power, the flying lap that Dimitrianov had got in wasn't that bad.

Bachmann hadn't done too badly either. His long run pace was similar to that managed by Dimitrianov and although his qualifying pace had been slower, the team felt that both drivers were capable of bringing home points.

As well as the improved performance on track, the racing team had joined up with the team's cricketers who had flown out for a new tournament to be held in Liventia. A good meeting had ended with a fairly comical cricket match in which Oliver Bachmann had shown himself to be a surprisingly good batsman until he was bowled by a surprisingly good leg-cutter by Dimitrianov's race engineer. That led to a tight finish with the head mechanic getting a blasting for getting Johann Struna run out to end the match with the boss' side losing by 6 runs.

Match over, the two teams had dinner and set off back to their hotels. A couple of engineers were a tad tipsy, but no damage was done. The next morning, preparations for the weekend began.

[Deiorus]

As soon as Nothotad had received the news, he quickly rushed towards Spupuo, he couldn't hold his excitement in his voice as he tried to talk “WE DID IT! YOU GOT A TRA-” but was interrupted by Spupuo who was looking at his smartphone in a bored fashion “Yep, the track where I started my new career is going to be named after me, nothing surprising really. I'd be mad if they didn't name it after me actually, too bad the name of the airport it self is going to be named after someone else, likely after that pompous corrupt moron who managed to get both projects merged.” Spupuo's eyes grew wide while fiddling with the device “It's amazing that I can fit the library I had in home to this small device don't you think?” Nothotad was rolling his eyes due to not being enthusiastic about the news but rather with the phone “Yeah, yeah it's nice and all that with the books, I just expected you to have more vigor about the news” while walking away, Nothotad had remembered another piece news to tell “Oh, you'll have to do an interview with 'local propaganda' news after the qualifying, expect questions about the drivers championship and you competing against Toralmintii, also expect questions about track naming AND SHOW MORE VIGIOUR AGAINST THEM” Spupuo let the device fall to the floor as he responded hysterically “PRE-EVENT AND AN AFTER-EVENT INTERVIEW WITH THOSE PEOPLE? OH NO!”

[Ethane]

Explosive News: Sports
WGPC

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Fight Hard in the Racing, Fighting Harder in the Garage?

Pos	Car	Name			Team	
1	51	R.L. Crusin		    	1:40.294
2	7	Ethan Ellis		    	1:40.336

A great start to the Liventian Grand Prix weekend for the resident team, coming first and second in the friday practice.

After a weekend which saw R.L Cruisin get his first points of the season, and Ethan Ellis fall to his lowest finish of the season yet, all the teams have headed to Liventia, for the Liventian Grand Prix. With the support of the country behind their team, they will both be hoping to get a decent result here for a good position, and to hope to boost not only their championships points tally, to make inroads on those above, but to also get a good points boost for their team.

R.L Cruisin will be hoping to turn around what so far has been a dismal season for him in the races, which tend to draw a wide contrast to those of his practice runs. Finishing first in the pre-season testing, it had been hoped that he would be a good asset for the team, being a well recognised, paid driver, but so far, he has failed to live up to his hype. Into the first practice, his ability did not shine so much though, as he went in to the weekend with a poor 21st place in practice. It had been hoped that this would improve going into the weekend, but alas, it did not, getting knocked out of qualifying in round two, to contrast with his team mate. While he may have improved in the practices after that, he has continued to fail to live up to expectations, only really showing any real improvement in the Eastfield Lodge Grand Prix.

This contrasts with the performance of Ethan Ellis from Ethane, who has only really placed in the top 10 throughout so far. However, after Eastfield Lodge, it remains to be seen whether he can pick up the performances of the first two races, instead of just clawing into the points to pick up a solitary point.

Whatever happens now on, this practice result does provide hope for the team in their home race, but also the team mates in tallying up championships points. As long as they can transfer the success they have had during practice to the qualifying and race, instead of falling back after practice like R.L Cruisin has done before, then the racers, and the team, should be in for a great weekend, and will be looking to try to achieve a 1-2 in this race.

What this surely does though, away from the results, is it will consolidate the growing rivalry between R.L Cruisin and Ethan Ellis. Both have been pointing fingers at each other and accusing each other of doing things, including the accusations of Ethan Elliss sponsor money not doing anything for the team. R.L Cruisin has also before commented on how cocky Ethan is. However, the results do tend to justify Ethan's attitude. Ethan before has also accused Cruisin of unsportsmanlike behaviour and trying to sabotage his race, and while this claims are all far-fetched, and probably completely ridiculous, it does go to show how the tension in that team is growing. With R.L Cruisin having a decent weekend at Eastfield Lodge, and the closeness of the practice results at Liventia so far, it is just expected to increase from here.

[WGPC]

Saturday Qualifying

* Conditions: Dry
* Drivers had 90 minutes to complete up to 10 flying laps.
* Only the fastest lap is shown

1 77 iBen Toralmintii        	1:40.283
 2 14 Oliver Bliss            	1:40.395
 3 56 Terho Talvela           	1:40.417
 4 35 Jac-Irlo Val            	1:40.438
 5 51 R.L. Crusin             	1:40.495
 6  6 Alexander Lund          	1:40.499
 7  3 Mateo Oket              	1:40.503
 8 42 Alex Dimitrianov        	1:40.532
 9 18 Louis Krindle           	1:40.556
10 46 Reni Sanderson          	1:40.584
11 24 Victoria Gardner        	1:40.593
12 10 Lauren Ashburton        	1:40.626
13 89 Will Madison            	1:40.686
14 17 Oliver Bachmann         	1:40.713
15 29 Esteban Guilhermez      	1:40.737
16 20 Marcus Melton           	1:40.789
17 55 Asao Nadakei            	1:40.812
18 21 Alexander Kohlon        	1:40.899
19  7 Ethan Ellis             	1:40.910
20 52 Sayono Souzare          	1:40.913
21  8 Igne Spupuo             	1:40.986
22 23 Moisés Delgado          	1:41.149
23  1 Alexandra Mayari        	1:41.341
24 12 Vic Convarion           	1:41.586
25 13 Gunnar Lindstrom        	1:44.377

Starting Grid

[Taeshan]

Oliver was cheering just as much inside as the team around him was cheering after the qualifying session which saw him on the outside of the front row for the seasons next race in Liventia. The team had proven they were fast in practice posting the 7th fastest time in that session, but they had showed even more speed in qualifying topping the charts for much of the allotted time before iBen inevitably went out and topped his speed. The team had been not only the best of the MSA-SinVal stable over the weekend, but now had posted a podium qualifying effort and hopefully this could launch them to another points finish, and maybe a podium one at that.

"How do you think this bodes for the race tomorrow Oliver?"

"It is an example of the speed this car has. We have been tweaking many things on it throughout this young season to establish more and more speed in the vessel, and now it is getting to the precipice of all the cars, and hopefully we can manage to keep it their through the season."

"How do you think you will do in the race?"

"Barring the car needing to not finish I think a top 10 is all but guaranteed, we have the speed, I just need to continue to improve in actual race settings as I sometimes do not continue to get faster as the race goes on, with less gas in the car, and this ultimately tends to have consequences for the team. I'm a speedster, not necessarily a racer, but I think I am improving, and a top 5 is well withing our limits once again."

"Are you ready for more upcoming testing?"

"Testing is always a good thing. It helps you test out tweaks, and helps you better align your car for what some tracks may have that others don't. Our goal is to go out their and win eventually, and to do so we will have to compete. Competing is about getting every edge you can get on and off the track, and testing is what will get us there."

[Dunpa]

After Qualifying

"18th. Can't believe Lindstorm got out of the race." Alex said to Michael.

"Tomorrow (today)'s the race, so let's get a top 10 finish and celebrate!" Mike excitedly told Alex.

[Aboveland]

"Woo hoo!"

Terho tapped the brakes in the garage and punched the steering wheel a few times in happiness. He felt the squishy, fuzzy leather give under his pressure.

Jumping out of the car, helmet and gloves on, he ran to Edvin to tell him how he felt. Qualifying had just finished, and he was third, right behind iBen on the starting grid. It was about time, he thought, that he got another good result in qualifying again, especially after his favorable practice session on an easy track for him.

He went to have a chat with iBen, to congratulate him on his pole position, and began to elaborate a plan. He didn't seem interested, so Terho left and sat inside a stack of tires to ponder his plan. He'd try to overtake Oliver Bachmann on the first turn, on the outside, and then stay middle on the second, narrower, sharper turn. From there on it would be a game of improv, much like any other race. Besides, he knew where he could push and where to be conservative. As long as his race resembled his qualifying runs, he would be pehmeaa alseen bjørk. He had no pressure on the outside, but he knew deep inside him a hunger for another win or a podium was alive and kicking. His goal: focus.

[Vilita and Turori]

Talbott Autodrome, Talbott, Liventia :: After a third place finish in Eastfield Lodge, iBen Toralmintii found himself alone atop the WGPC drivers standings for the first time in his career. Heading into Liventia, Toralmintii found himself 4 points ahead of Igne Spupuo, the winner at Eastfield Lodge.

His teammate, Terho Talvela, who stunned the racing world with his opening round victory in Hodori, struggled to find his pace at Eastfield Lodge and barely finished inside the points with a 9th place run.

But, if you would have asked iBen Toralmintii who his biggest rival in the championship race was, he wouldn't say his teammate, he wouldn't say Spupuo - nor Louis Krindle, the third placed driver. No, Toralmintii would provide the name of the 15th place driver in the standings. Carvenlo-Franklin's R.L. Cruisin.

Cruisin has been fast from the word go, setting track records in qualifying, topping th charts in practice. He just hasn't been scoring points when it counted. An incident took him out of contention in Aels and he had to rally back after an unfortunate setback in Eastfield Lodge.

Arriving back at Carvenlo-Franklin's home track, the Talbott Autodrome, Cruisin would be fast off the truck once again.

The Vilitan driver topped the charts in practice with teammate Ethan Ellis and Vilita & Turori driver iBen Toralmintii the only drivers within two-tenths of a second of Cruisin's fast time.

Despite the practice speed it was the Vilita & Turori team who found themselves atop the pylon during qualifying with Cruisin slipping back to the 5th place and his Carvenlo-Franklin teammate Ethan Ellis struggling, the nerves perhaps of competing at the teams home track condemning the inexperienced driver to a 19th place time.

It has been no secret that there has been some strife between Cruisin and Ellis at the start of the season and the discontent has not yet relaxed itself. Cruisin can frequently be seen in conversation with his Vilita & Turori motorsports rivals iBen Toralmintii and Terho Talvela opposed to consulting with his Carvenlo-Franklin teammate, letting the teams car chief handle that.

Cruisin will undoubtedly be looking to claim victory in the Grand Prix of Liventia at his teams home course to get himself back in the thick of the championship race, but he will have to go through the Two Vilita & Turori Motorsports drivers lined up directly in front of him on the grid in order to accomplish it.

---

[Ceni]

Fornax had a decent start to the race in Liventia - with Jac-Irlo Val securing the fourth grid position after a good performance in the one-shot qualifying. Will Madison did alright - getting thirteenth place, about the middle of the pack. However, Vic Convarion couldn't have done much worse - getting last place in the qualification and the final grid, only beating out the third WGPC Motorworks racer Gunnar Lindstrom, who didn't qualify for the final race to be held on Sunday.

It's a mixed bag, however, whether Val or Madison will score any points - problems with Fornax's car, and Jac-Irlo Val's frequent efforts to drive every last iota out of his car, have meant that Val has not finished a race yet, despite his excellent performances in qualifications. On the other hand, better performances have seemed to make Vic Convarion actually do better in the race itself - after all, he scored second place in Aels when he had a decent starting position. So it may end up to be a worse turn of form for Vic, Jac-Irlo, or really, any of the Cenian drivers, as it seemed like even the pit crew was distracted by other things - perhaps the tennis starting up in Rushmore, or Ceni's first attempts to get onto the international basketball stage.

So, Owen Keteris called up the two racers and wished them luck - Selaphoros wasn't making much progress on making the frickin' engine work better. Everybody really wanted to watch tennis, Owen mused... So the two drivers would have to live with the poor engine, and Owen asked Val to please try not to destroy it this time, and please make good use of your fourth starting grid position, and please overtake Oliver Bliss and those top-of-the-crowd racers from Vilita...